Geology 100
Introduction to Geology Telecourse
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Geology 100 |
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UNIT 11 |
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Surprisingly, water underground is about 60 times as plentiful as fresh water in lakes and rivers on the land surface (not including water stored as ice in glaciers). Groundwater is a tremendously important resource. How it gets underground, where it is stored, how it moves while underground, how we look for it, and, perhaps most important of all, why we need to protect it are the main topics of this chapter.
Also important is how groundwater is related to surface rivers and springs. Groundwater can form distinctive geologic features, such as caves, sinkholes, and petrified wood. It also can appear as hot springs and geysers. Hot groundwater can be used to generate power.
Deserts have a distinctive appearance because a dry climate controls erosional and depositional processes and the rates at which they operate. Although it seldom rains in the desert, running water is the dominant agent of land sculpture. Flash floods cause most desert erosion and deposition, even though they are rare events.
In chapters 13, 16, 17 and 19, you see how the land is sculptured by mass wasting, streams, groundwater, and glaciers. Here we discuss another agent of erosion and deposition: wind. Deserts and wind action are discussed together because of the wind's particular effectiveness in dry regions. But wind erosion and deposition can be very significant in other climates as well.
E-mail your instructor: John McNamara
Copyright © 2003 by Debbie Secord. All rights reserved.